Since he was elected President of France, Emmanuel Macron has made numerous high-profile international trips – enhancing his global image and that of France. However, it is debatable whether he’s achieved concrete results.
As demonstrated by Macron’s recent state visit to the United States, the man loves to project an image of being close to other world leaders. For three days, handshakes and hugs between Macron and US President Donald Trump were meant to show the pair’s chumminess. All of this had been prepared in advance.
Macron may have left Washington without any real diplomatic achievements. But – with his trip with Trump to George Washington’s grave, his exchange with George Washington University students, and his Fox News interview – he did a good PR job.
After a year in the Élysée Palace, Macron’s big foreign policy success has been to restore France’s public image on the world stage. “You’ve only got to look at the newspapers from when he was abroad,” said Christian Lequesne, a political science professor specialising in French foreign policy at Sciences Po, in an interview with FRANCE 24.
“We went from being a country in decline to a country that’s moving forward, full of energy,” Lequesne continued. “And whether it’s with Donald Trump or with students in Washington, he never switches off or misses a chance to show off.”
Macron conveys the same message in all of his foreign visits: ‘France is back – as symbolised by me.’
Macron’s PR masterstroke
The self-proclaimed “Jupiterian” President has also done a good job of taking whatever opportunities arise to project France’s voice and to seize space left unoccupied in the international community. “Being effective in foreign policy today is primarily about knowing how to be in the right place at the right time, knowing how to follow the momentum of events, so that you can call the shots,” said Lequesne.
“Macron understands this perfectly,” the political scientist told FRANCE 24. “He’s part of a trend among world leaders of taking a tactical, rather than strategic, approach: as soon as you see a diplomatic matter on what you can make your country’s presence felt, you do it.”
Macron took advantage of Donald Trump’s election to move Paris closer to Washington, at a time when the British Prime Minister Theresa May has been distracted by Brexit and Germany’s Angela Merkel has been weakened by her party’s losses in September’s elections. He also played a notable mediating role between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon amid the controversy over Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s surprise resignation.
But Macron’s greatest PR coup was probably his “Make Our Planet Great Again” video, which was put up just minutes after Donald Trump’s announcement of US withdrawal from the Paris climate change agreement, and which – along with his organisation of last December’s One Planet Summit in Paris – put forward an image of France as a shining positive example in the fight against global warming.
Difficulties with EU reform agenda
Nevertheless, talking a good talk has its downsides. “Big speeches are essential in foreign policy, but they can also be counter-productive because of the risk of over-promising and under-delivering,” Lequesne warned.
And Macron is yet to achieve concrete diplomatic results.
Despite all his efforts to cosy up to Trump, Macron has failed to convince him to bring America back into the Paris climate change agreement and to adopt a less critical stance towards the Iran nuclear deal. On the contrary, the French President’s statements in Washington have watered down France’s own position on Iran.
At the same time, Macron’s proposals to reform the EU are also at a standstill. After he gave a very ambitious speech in September, including a call for a eurozone finance minister, nothing has happened.
Macron spent several months waiting for a new German government to be formed, only to find that bringing Angela Merkel on side may well be an impossible task.
“He clearly set the bar too high and probably put too much hope in his relationship with Merkel,” said Lesquesne. “We can see now that he’s going to have a hard time trying to reform the EU, because he lacks like-minded allies.
“But he needs results, and – seeing as he’s always keen to show himself playing a big role – any failures could really tarnish his image.”